Is your career trapping you – Photo: forbes.com
It’s Monday morning, it’s pouring rain outside, you can’t find your umbrella and you’re late for work. And of course, traffic is crazy and your hair is starting to frizz. All of a sudden, your throat feels tight, your palms get sweaty, and you feel…trapped! Trapped in a career you feel you can’t escape from. Trapped in a 9-to-5 that you feel will never help you fulfill your dreams. Just trapped, with no prospects, no light at the end of this long career tunnel…
There are many reasons nowadays to feel trapped in one’s job, the bad economy, a family at home, and so on and so forth. It ends up robbing us of our confidence,depleting our ambition, and making us give up on our dreams.
Yet, are you truly trapped in your job, or are you making yourself believe you are? And if the latter is true, is it really possible to be happy in one’s career? Or must we all settle for some lousy measure of career satisfaction (if any) in order to barely stay afloat?
Yes, many are the pressures, from mounting (and still unforgiven) amounts of student debt, to family and personal responsibilities. Yet, I strongly believe as much as you may have to put up with an undesired career for some time, there are ways to prevent your career from having you, all of you that is:
1. Decide what you want! I hate to point out the obvious, but not knowing what you want may keep you from getting it. What makes you happy? Better yet, what are you good at that provides you with satisfaction? If in doubt, poll your friends and family, they may see in you what you fail to give yourself credit for.
2. Start somewhere, anywhere! The best way to feel less trapped is to crack a window in your golden prison of a career or job. A friend of my sister’s had always been passionate with photography. She just started one day, taking pictures of people and places around her, posting them on social media and on her website. After years of side hustling, she now has a thriving side business. While she’s not yet ready to take this business on full-time, she’s glad she started somewhere, anywhere, with what she had.
3.Keep checking in with yourself! Now this may not be your typical career advice, yet it has saved me from many a bind. In your career equation, you are the most important variable. And just as you are called to grow and change in life, so are your career aspirations. Check in with yourself, often; ask yourself if you are happy and fulfilled, and what you can do to be happier and more fulfilled. Whether it’s saving up to launch an entrepreneurial venture, or hustling on the side, or taking a sabbatical to find yourself, take your career pulse often, and do what works for YOU!
Do you feel trapped in your career? What are you doing about it?
The Corporate Sis.
